


Til Death Do Us Part

by Pitkin



Series: Words Of Every Song [3]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Domestic Violence, F/M, Gunshot Wounds, Medical Trauma, Stabbing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-06
Updated: 2016-06-06
Packaged: 2018-07-12 13:57:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7107988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pitkin/pseuds/Pitkin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jiaying reached for Cal’s face, framing it with her hands to turn his eyes to hers. “Daisy’s gone,” she said again, soft and gentle. She leaned closer. “<i>And you will never find her…you will never hurt her…</i>” she murmured just loud enough for Cal, and no one else, to hear as her eyes darkened when her gaze reached his.</p>
<p>“Wh-what have you…what’ve you done to me?” Cal stammered. Jiaying didn’t answer. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?” Cal’s arm reeled back and May adjusted her aim quickly and took her shot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Til Death Do Us Part

When they had first met in the very beginning of October of 1989, Cal was working in a clinic in the small town of Shaoshan outside of city of Xiangtan in the Hunan province of China. His Chinese was terrible and Jiaying was the only one who could understand any of what he said. She became his assistant and translator for the duration of the year that he lived and worked in China. She helped him with his Chinese while he slowly taught her more English than the few words and phrases she already knew and also taught her any of the things she didn’t already know in helping him around the clinic. When Cal returned to the states, he took Jiaying with him.

At first Jiaying was, in a word, terrified of being in such a new place, where she only partially knew the language and was an entire world away from her family. She and Cal settled into a rhythm in life and they were happy so Jiaying’s fears ebbed away after a few short weeks, once she had become just a bit more accustomed to the things going on around her. Come that December, as they had been discussing marriage quite often since Jiaying’s visa would be expiring soon and neither of them wanted to part ways. Shortly before the New Year, she had told Cal that she was pregnant. Everything seemed like it was coming together perfectly for them.

Then the accident happened. Cal had been working late one night at the end of January. On his way home from the hospital where he had finished up his rounds, a drunk driver hit him head-on and caused a four car pile-up. Cal had woken with a number of wounds and his adrenaline spiking. He had climbed, slowly, from his car and dragged his way over to one of the other cars. The drunk driver had been unharmed and had fled the scene. The other car had held a family. The father, who had been driving, had died on impact when their station wagon had slammed into a tree. The mother was breathing but unconscious. In the backseat there was a wailing infant, an eight year old who was slumped against the wailing baby’s car seat and a five year-old who was staring at him while bleeding out from the large shard of passenger window glass that was impaled through his neck.

Only the baby survived out of the station wagon. Cal, as well, had his own wounds to heal from aside from the mental and emotional scars left behind from the haunting scene he had witnessed. Left largely out of work and on disability insurance, Jiaying tried her best to nurse Cal back to health. Cal, however, quickly fell into a spiral of self-medication through his pain medication prescriptions then, when that well started to run dry, with alcohol. When the alcohol wasn’t enough and when he couldn’t obtain the prescriptions he wanted to dull the pain with his own prescription pad, Cal sought out a stronger means of easing his pain.

\--

_ Our luck is running out of time _

_ You’re not in love with me anymore _

_ I wish that it would change, but it won’t, if you don’t _

_ Our luck is running out of time _

_ You’re not in love with me anymore _

_ I wish that it would change, but it won’t _

_ Cause you don’t love me no more _

\--

Within three months of the accident, Cal had become a full blown addict. It was rare that he left the house if it wasn’t to obtain either liquor or drugs. He often bought different over the counter medications and mixed them into toxic concoctions to consume. Jiaying didn’t know what to do. They fought frequently. Depending on what state he was in when a fight occurred, Cal had a tendency to become violent so that he could end the argument. Every time, after he sobered up, he apologized, he double spoke when he talked to her and turned the blame around on her.

Jiaying was stuck. She didn’t want to give up on Cal, not when they were supposed to be having a baby together. She just wanted him to let her help him get better before their child arrived. She couldn’t go back home, even if she had the money to do so, her family would never accept her back in the condition she was in. She had no money to her name, she had no citizenship, her visa was expired, she was, at that point almost four months pregnant, even though she understood English much better, could read and write it well enough, her accent was still very thick and it was hard to find people who understood her without having to speak very slow and deliberately, she had no friends in the area, even their neighbors had trouble understanding her all the time so she couldn’t ask for help and even if she did, it was likely the authorities would discover her expired visa.

Her life became a cycle of trying to avoid Cal at all costs when he was drunk, high or when he was in withdrawal and looking for a fix of some kind. She tried not to let him hear comments under her breath. She tried to ignore the way he treated her when he was lashing out. She tried to always make sure when he did swing at her, he didn’t manage to directly hit her gut. Sometimes she used the baby to her advantage since it tended to stop him from harming her for fear of harming their child. Sometimes he was too far gone for that to even reach him. She covered up the marks he left behind and slowly lost herself to his addictions.

\--

_ You need so much but not from me _

_ Turn your back in my hour of need _

_ Something’s wrong but you pretend you don’t see _

_ I think I interrupt your life _

_ When you laugh it cuts me just like a knife _

_ I’m not your friend, I’m just your little wife _

_ Our luck is running out of time _

_ You’re not in love with me anymore _

_ I wish that it would change, but it won’t, if you don’t _

_ Our luck is running out of time _

_ You’re not in love with me anymore _

_ I wish that it would change, but it won’t _

_ Cause you don’t love me no more _

\--

“Why do you make me do this!?” Cal screamed as he loomed over Jiaying, red-faced, fists clenched and nostrils flaring.

Jiaying’s hand flew from her pink cheekbone where Cal had hit her to aim it out in front of her in a ‘stop!’ motion in Cal’s direction. “Please don’t hurt us!” She shouted it so quickly that she didn’t realize she had said it in Chinese and not English as her other arm moved to try and cradle across her swollen belly. She could feel the baby swimming about, unsettled by her racing pulse and the surge of fear coursing through her.

“ENGLISH!” Cal bellowed. He stopped just short of swinging at her again, this time leaning down close to her face. He grabbed her by the collar of her dress, balling it in her fist. “This is why you haven’t made friends since moving here! This is why it’s all on _me_ to support us! You can’t let go of who you were and assimilate into this world because you _don’t_ _want_ _to_! You want us to go back _there_ instead, don’t you?!” He accused.

She trembled under his grasp and averted her eyes from his in fear of angering him further. “Please, Cal!” Jiaying pled, this time in accented English.

“Get out,” Cal dropped his hold on her collar and stormed away from her.

“C-Cal,” She stammered even as she moved to pull herself to her feet, afraid that staying still on the ground would make her an easier target to return to. This wouldn’t be the first time he had kicked her out only to shout at her and start another fight when she returned later and he had come down from whatever high he was on, since he had no idea where she had gone and had forgotten that he had sent her away.

“WHAT DID I SAY?!” Cal rounded on her. Jiaying stumbled back and toward the door in the living room. Cal matched her step for step. “GET OUT!” He ordered.

Jiaying had no choice, with Cal in his current state, but to leave the house. Usually when that happened, she stayed in the neighborhood - on nicer days she went to the park that was a few blocks from their house. They had talked many times after they had moved in about bringing their kids to the park and its playground. That plan seemed a distant memory from the present, though their child would be with them in just a few more weeks. Instead of staying in the neighborhood, Jiaying took the train into the city. She knew most of the routes that would take her from their neighborhood into the city and back from having to take it to get to the clinic she went to for her checkups on the baby. She had no reason to go into the city now other than having no reason to stay in the neighborhood while Cal was strung out.

\--

_ They never laugh, not like before _

_ She takes the keys, he breaks the door _

_ She cannot stay here anymore _

_ He’s not in love with her anymore _

\--

For the afternoon she wandered around the city, alternating between window shopping and finding places to rest her swollen feet and ankles. Her hands always hovered near her protruding belly, sometimes walking with them loosely hung around the bulbous round as she occasionally spoke soothingly to it as a means to keep herself calm. The baby answered with a swat or a kick and shuffled about whenever Jiaying seemed to settle and fall still for too long. The baby was restless today and, honestly, Jiaying couldn’t blame her after the stress of the morning. In the early evening, she found herself sitting sideways on the very end of a bench at a bus stop, waiting for the bus that would take her back to the train, glad that she had just enough cash in her pockets to make it to the train and take that home. She couldn’t see them, but she knew her ankles were thoroughly swollen and ached almost to the bone.

Jiaying closed her eyes a moment and took a deep breath, her hands resting on the sides of her belly. When she opened them she came face to face with a little girl that could have been no more than two. She had jaw length blonde hair and bright blue eyes that were staring up at Jiaying with curiosity as she tilted her head to the side. Two of her fingers were stuffed into her mouth, which was covered in a pink ring left over from what Jiaying could only assume had been some sort of popsicle, which also seemed to have stained a few splotches on her shirt. Jiaying smiled at the little girl and in return, the edge of the little girl’s eyes scrunched into little wrinkles as her lips smiled around the fingers she sucked.

With a pop, as she had been sucking the last of the sticky mess of popsicle off of her fingers, the little girl pulled her hand from her mouth and waved it haphazardly back and forth. “Hi!” She said in an exuberant, melodic tone, as if proud of herself for knowing how to greet someone without being told to by one of her parents. Her father was standing next to her holding onto the little girl’s other hand while someone spoke avidly with the man who they had apparently recognized.

Jiaying leaned slightly closer to the girl’s height. “Hello,” she said the word carefully so that her tongue formed the letters properly to avoid confusing the little girl. Calm and sweet in her tone’s nature, the little girl smiled broader at her, seeming to decide that the stranger on the bus stop bench was a friend. Her fingers adjusted around the two fingers of her father’s hand she clutched and she shuffled on her feet, a small bundle of energy just waiting to burst free from her.

The girl pointed with one of the fingers she had been previously sucking on at Jiaying’s round belly. “Baby!” She announced with another proud grin on her face as her pale eyebrows jumped up her forehead, waiting for confirmation. Reflexively, Jiaying looked down at her belly where the girl pointed and wondered for a moment if the girl’s mother must be pregnant for her to know such things at her age.

Looking back to the little girl, she offered another warm smile as she rubbed her own hand along the side of her belly. “Yes,” she confirmed for the little girl with a small nod. A bright smile spread all the way across the little girl’s face, showing off all her baby teeth and lighting up her entire face with pride and excitement. Jiaying had no choice but to smile broadly back at the little girl and her adorable reaction.

Just as suddenly as she had pulled her hand from her mouth to say hello, the little girl moved, tugging her father’s arm with her, and stepped right up against the side of Jiaying’s knee. She leaned over, resting most of her weight on her little hand as it rested on Jiaying’s leg and let out a cheerful, “HI, BABY!” before she kissed the curve of the baby bump and then pressed her ear to it as if waiting for a response. Jiaying blinked but froze, unsure how to react to such a display, as adoring as it was, since it wasn’t often that someone touched her swollen baby bump as lovingly as she did. In fact, now that she was paying close attention in the moment, it was the calmest the baby had been all day. Jiaying felt it as the baby pushed a hand out against the small weight that was resting against the edge of her home to say hello.

“Bobbi!” The name came with an apologetic chuckle from the girl’s father when the tug on his hand alerted him to what she was doing. He smiled at Jiaying, “Sorry about that,” He apologized to her as he crouched down closer to his daughter’s height. “One of our neighbors is pregnant. She likes to have conversations with the baby,” He explained as he let go of the little girl’s, Bobbi’s, hand and brought his hands to rest on her waist to keep her from getting away, though she was occupied at the moment. “Sweetheart, why don’t we leave the nice lady and her baby alo-,”

Bobbi’s let out a squealing shriek of a giggle when the baby pushed against her cheek through Jiaying’s belly. “She says hi, daddy!” Bobbi announced, lifting her head so she could put her hand against the spot where the little hand had been pushing.

The girl’s father actually blushed as he tried to hide his smile. He turned his eyes to Jiaying. “I’m so sorry-,”

“No,” Jiaying shook her head with a bashful smile of her own. “It’s no trouble,” She spoke carefully so that her accent didn’t swallow her words. “Your daughter is...very kind,” she offered with a smile.

The man couldn’t help but smile. He looked over at Bobbi, who promptly grabbed his hand and placed it against Jiaying’s stomach. He chuckled as the baby pushed back and then used his arm to pull Bobbi over to his side and opened his mouth to speak just as the bus was arriving. The man stood, taking Bobbi with him as she wrapped her arms around his shoulder. “Looks like our ride is here,” The man said. He held his hand out for Jiaying to offer her help standing up. “Is this the one you were waiting for?” he asked.

Jiaying looked to the bus and the number on its window. “Yes,” she nodded. “I am heading to the train station,” she smiled though this one, unlike the ones Bobbi had drawn from her, didn’t quite reach her eyes. She let the man help her to her feet. “Thank you,” she said to him with a smile.

“Phil,” He held his hand out for her as he introduced himself.

She smiled and reached out to shake his hand. “Thank you, Phil.” She repeated his name and then looked at Bobbi. “Thank you for your company, Bobbi,” she smiled.

“You’re welcome!” Bobbi cheered, not sure why she was being thanked but knowing exactly the proper reply she was supposed to give to someone in response to something like that.

Phil and Jiaying both chuckled and he motioned to let her go ahead of them and followed her onto the bus. Phil and Bobbi sat in the seats in front of Jiaying and Bobbi eagerly babbled away, frequently climbing on the seat and her dad’s lap to turn around to the woman, speaking in sometimes broken words during the whole ride to the train station. Jiaying could sympathize with garbled sounding words, that was for sure. When they arrived at the train station, Phil thanked Jiaying for the conversation with Bobbi and both left the bus.

It turned out they were taking the same train, and even to the same stop. It might have seemed odd to Jiaying, maybe, if it weren’t for the fact that the baby seemed rather restless once again. Phil kept Bobbi occupied with conversation and a little game to keep her from possibly bothering Jiaying any further than the little girl might have so far at the bus stop and on the bus, though the woman had been nice enough about the temporary intrusion into her afternoon.

When it came to their stop, Phil lifted Bobbi up from her seat in his lap and set her feet on the ground. Reflexively, Bobbi reached up and wrapped her hand around his index and middle finger to hold onto his hand. It always made Phil smile when she did that, her hand too small to wrap all the way around his yet, and this time was no different. He continued talking with her as she avidly babbled in phrases that were only partially intelligible some of the time as they followed Jiaying’s slow, waddling stroll while she rubbed her bulging belly to try and calm the baby. Jiaying stopped mid-step, midway through a chuckle at something Bobbi had said when she felt it.

First, it was the sudden whoosh of liquid that washed down her legs as Phil and Bobbi stopped behind her. “Are you alri-,” Phil was midway through asking when the first contraction hit with full force and Jiaying saw stars in her vision as her legs wobbled out beneath her. Phil managed to let go of Bobbi’s hand in time to catch most of Jiaying’s weight to keep her from collapsing into the floor of the train. “Okay, it’s okay, it’s okay…” Phil’s head shot back and forth along the train car but there were no workers in this car. The doors to the train began to ding and then shut and they were inching forward. “Hold on just sit tight for a sec,” He set Jiaying down so she was sitting on the floor, gasping for breath. Phil told Bobbi to stay where she was and then leaned across two seats to pull the emergency cord to stop the train and alert the conductor to the problem in their train car.

Moments later, he was on the floor on his knees, ignoring the mess he was kneeling in as he held Jiaying around her shoulders with one arm and let her cling onto his other hand as her contractions steadily began to increase in number an intensity. Bobbi stuck close to Phil’s side, wide-eyed and confused. Phil tried to tell Jiaying that everything would be okay, trying his best to keep an eye on his watch between her contractions while they waited for one of the train employees to arrive. When they did he told them that they needed an ambulance right away. The employee rushed from the car with his walkie talkie in hand belting out a call for an ambulance. He rushed through the cars looking for anyone that might have medical experience and came back with a nurse who had been on her way home from work.

“I didn’t get your name,” Phil was saying as a way to try and distract Jiaying from the pain of her last contraction.

“Ji…” She gritted her teeth and squeezed Phil’s hand tighter a moment as she grunted. “Jiaying,” she said through her ground teeth.

Phil smiled. “What a beautiful name,” He said. The nurse and the employee came rushing in and everything that transpired afterward happened in the fifteen minutes it took for the ambulance to get there. The baby was determined to be born and with help from the operator radioing instructions from emergency services on what to do, loud baby wails filled the air around them in the train car. Bobbi was standing close to Phil’s side as he tugged his shirt tails out and quickly unbuttoned the front of it to sacrifice it to wrap the baby up into the white material. He cradled the baby close against his chest and undershirt, just very gently rocking her while the nurse worked with the supplies they had from a very rudimentary first aid kit to tie off and cut the umbilical cord.

Exhausted and still trying to catch her breath, Jiaying was leaning back against the train employee who had sat down behind her to brace her back. Phil grinned down at the baby’s dark brown eyes as they searched the space above her between wails. When the nurse finished with the cord, Phil moved quickly to pass the baby over to Jiaying, who looked equal parts terrified, relieved and overjoyed to not only hear her daughter crying loud shrieks but to also be holding her. She murmured, unable to stop herself from alternating between English and Chinese as she had been since the first contraction. She tore her eyes from the baby to look up at the train employee, the nurse and then to Phil. “Thank you,” she said, not realizing she had said it in Chinese, tears in her eyes. “Thank you, Thank you so much,” she said to him.

Phil smiled and gave her arm a small squeeze as he wiped his other hand on his now messy undershirt so he could grab Bobbi’s hand to keep her from getting lost in the shuffle as they heard the ambulance coming. “You are welcome,” Phil replied to her in the best Chinese accent he could. He was terrible with the accent but May had taught him enough of it phonetically from an early enough age to passably speak it. Jiaying blinked at him in surprise but couldn’t wipe the smile from her face and, Phil noticed, it was shining in her eyes very much so right now. “Your daughter is beautiful,” He continued in his poorly accented Chinese with a warm smile. “Congratulations.”

Phil picked Bobbi up and followed the paramedics out through the train car doors and back toward the station area.

“Phil?”

Phil shifted Bobbi’s weight and they turned to see Melinda jogging their way from the post she and her partner had been at, blocking the area off. “Are you two alright?” she asked, seeing the mess on the side of his shirt. Reflexively, Phil looked down at the bottom of his shirt and his pants.

“Yeah, yeah, we’re ok-,”

“MayMay!!” Bobbi shrieked with Glee when she recognized May beneath her police hat, once she was close enough. Her pudgy little hands instantly tried to reach for her and she leaned most of her weight shifted that way.

Phil chuckled as she tried to bounce her to hoist her back his way. “Honey, MayMay’s working,” Phil said and Melinda fought the blush that hit her cheeks at the nickname as she reached out to put her hand on Bobbi’s arm to appease her want for a hug since she couldn’t really hug the little girl right that moment. “We’re okay,” Phil added right away. “There was just a-,”

“Phil! Bobbi!” Just as Phil was trying to explain to May what was going on, Audrey had arrived at the train station, just a few minutes late from her errands, to pick them up only to see multiple police cars, a fire truck and the ambulance that was pulling away with new mom Jiaying and her daughter to the hospital to be checked over. Audrey came rushing over to the three of them, relieved to see both of them and May as well, but her eyes zeroed in on the splotches of mess on his clothes as Phil handed Bobbi over to her. “What happened?”

Phil smiled. “Everything’s okay,” he assured. “A woman went into labor as we were getting off the train-,”

“She talked like MayMay!” Bobbi announced with a grin as she pointed toward May.

Phil chuckled. “Bobbi had a very lively and encroaching conversation with her at the bus stop and on the ride to the train station.” He explained. He looked at May and Audrey. “Baby came before the ambulance,” He motioned toward his shirt. “I lost my shirt in service as a blanket and got my hands a little dirty,” He scrunched his eyes but smiled.

May and Audrey both seemed to breathe sighs of relief as they exchanged their own glances. “Why don’t you get them home and cleaned up – this one smells more than usual,” May said to Audrey while hooking her thumb toward Phil.

“Careful, I’ll hug you and you’ll be stuck with my stench for the rest of your shift!” Phil sung out.

Audrey rolled her eyes but was smiling. She pushed Phil by the back of his shoulder. “You heard your orders, soldier – March!” she jokingly ordered as she gave him a gentle shove. Phil put his hands up in surrender and turned to start toward the parking lot. “You get home safe,” Audrey said to May, leaning over quickly to kiss her cheek on the way by.

“Is that a threat?” May called out after them with a half-smile.

“Yes Ma’am!” Audrey called over her shoulder.

“YES MA’AM!” Bobbi repeated as she waved goodbye to May while Audrey snickered at Bobbi’s echo.

\--

In the hospital, they checked Jiaying and the baby over and then moved them into their own room for observation. The nurses helped set her up with the baby, wrapped up in her new little blanket and a pink knit hat, with a little hospital band on her wrist, to feed her and then left her be with her daughter for some bonding time. Eventually, when the baby had fallen asleep, the nurses moved the baby into a small glass bassinet but left her in the room next to Jiaying as the exhaustion hit and pulled Jiaying asleep.

When she woke up again, a much less disheveled than normal Cal was sitting in a high backed chair next to her bed, smiling a cheerful, teary-eyed smile down at the baby as he held her. Jiaying tensed and sat up almost immediately and then grimaced in pain. Her automatic response was to want to take the baby – their daughter – away from Cal to protect her.

“Oh-oh, looks like your mommy’s awake now too!” Call spoke in a soft but excited tone as he rocked the baby. “Ohhh,” he sung out in a sweet tone, “Don’t get quiet now! We’ve been talking all this time you and I - has mommy gotten to hear your pretty little voice yet?” He asked the baby. Cal turned his eyes to look at Jiaying and saw the fear in them. The tears welled in his further. “She was talking up a storm while you slept,” He told her.

“Cal-,”

“I’m sorry,” Cal said his voice thick with emotion. “I’m so sorry,” He told her as he sniffled.

“Cal-,”

Cal sniffled again and locked Jiaying’s eyes with his. “I’ll get help,” Cal blurted. Jiaying eyed him carefully and, truthfully, he couldn’t fault her. He hadn’t felt any sense of clarity, since the accident, like he had the moment the nurse had come into the hospital room, spotted him staring down at the baby with trepidation on his face and had scooped their daughter up and passed her into his arms for the first time. This…their lives, their situation, their daughter’s life, it wasn’t supposed to be this way. He’d lost everything that he had wanted for them and now…now she was scared of him.

“I don’t…I don’t want this for you,” He insisted. Cal looked back down at the baby, with her big brown eyes staring up at him, her mouth slightly agape, her body moving in an uncontrolled squirm, jolt or wiggle. “For either of you, I…” His voice was thick with emotion again, cracking, stammering. He looked back over at Jiaying in the hospital bed. She was watching him closely, trying to evaluate whether or not she should believe him. She had heard this speech before. Admittedly, he had never looked or sounded as sincere as he did in this moment. The baby let out a cooed noise and Cal turned his eyes back down to her and let out a chuckle among his sniffle, giving the baby a watery eyed smile. “Yes, you’re part of this conversation too,” He spoke to the baby in a gentle tone as he rocked her gently.

Jiaying opened her mouth to speak but Cal cut her off. “Please,” He said as he looked at her, exhausted, tense and wary in the hospital bed. “Just one chance…one  _ more _ chance. I can…I can make this right and we,” He paused for a moment, as if afraid of what her response would be. “I can make this right,” he insisted. “I’ll get help and we…we can get married, like we planned. I’ll take care of you,” he dropped his eyes to his daughter’s wrinkled little face. “I’ll take care of both of you,” he swore.

\--

_ The bruises they will fade away _

_ You hit so hard with the things you say _

_ I will not stay to watch your hate as it grows _

_ You’re not in love with someone else _

_ You don’t even love yourself _

_ Still I wish you’d ask me not to go _

_ Our luck is running out of time _

_ You’re not in love with me anymore _

_ I wish that it would change, but it won’t, if you don’t _

_ Our luck is running out of time _

_ You’re not in love with me anymore _

_ I wish that it would change, but it won’t _

_ ‘Cause you don’t love me no more _

\--

They named her Daisy. The first month was terrifying and difficult for both Jiaying and Cal. Cal was gone, checked into a rehab center to detox and get counseling. Jiaying was left on her own with an infant, doing her best to make it through every day. At the same time that it was exhausting and trying, being alone without the intrusion of fights with Cal or picking him up and cleaning his mess in the wake of it all, it was somewhat of a relief. She had other kinds of messes to handle with a newborn, but they were a much different caliber and not one she felt was a burden, though she did feel mentally stressed from it all at times. She did the best she could and tried to enjoy her time with Daisy, even when she couldn’t quite figure out why the baby was crying for any given reason sometimes.

Cal returned after five weeks. Jiaying felt terrified of which Cal might be returning to her. He seemed like the old Cal - happy go lucky, optimistic, always grinning and making the best out of everything. He jumped right into helping take care of Daisy and barely batted an eye when she cried for an hour for no reason they could discern, or drove her around for hours to make sure she slept when only the movement of the car would lull her to sleep. He sung happy little songs to her and talked to her about all the things he was going to teach her, making up for lost time on getting to know his voice.

For the first few weeks he was back, Jiaying felt too wary to let her guard down completely. There were moments where she couldn’t help it, where watching him with Daisy was enough to let her lose herself in that happiness for just a few passing moments. It wasn’t until Daisy’s third month home (Cal’s 2nd month home) that she started to relax, to tell herself that this could work. She let Cal back in where she had locked him out before. Jiaying started to see a future once more, the happy home she had wanted for her family, it was finally within her grasp. They were putting the pieces back together quickly enough, finally.

\--

_ He takes a drink, she goes inside _

_ He starts to scream, the vases fly _

_ He wishes that she wouldn’t cry _

_ He’s not in love with her anymore _

\--

The cracks appeared three months after Cal returned. Jiaying returned with Daisy asleep in her stroller from a long walk on an unusually warm December day. The weather was perfect. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and it felt more like a spring day than a late fall day. Daisy had been restless and Cal had been a bit stressed out after getting home from his still relatively new job at a local pharmacy, so Jiaying had taken Daisy for the walk, hoping to calm Daisy down and let Cal relax before she would start on making something for dinner.

“We’re back!” She called softly into the living room after shutting the door behind her and the stroller, keeping her voice just loud enough to be heard without disturbing the sleeping baby. She hung up her jacket and leaned in and unhooked the stroller safety belt. She carefully pulled Daisy from the stroller and brought the baby to rest against her shoulder without waking her, though she did stay still as she patted Daisy’s back while Daisy squirmed and burrowed into the crook of her neck. Smiling to herself, Jiaying turned into the living room. “Cal?” She called his name out, still quiet, when she didn’t see him. She moved into the dining room next and then jumped when she found Cal silently sitting at the table in there.

“Oh!” Jiaying softly chuckled at herself for being startled. “You scared me,” she spoke quietly with a soft smile that slowly fell from her face as she realized that Cal was not only sitting in the dark in the dining room table, but he was sitting there with an open bottle of whiskey and a small glass in front of him. “Cal…?” she said his name like a timid question – had he already had something to drink from that half-filled glass? How long had he been drinking if he indeed had started while she was gone? Had he been drinking the entire time since she had left? How long had she been on her walk with Daisy? It was nice weather and Jiaying knew she had been out for quite a bit of time.

“What…what are you doing in here?” Jiaying asks, though it is plain to see what’s happened. She hadn’t expected this. That’s not true. She had told herself for weeks after his return that things would go back to how they were, it was only a matter of time. But this, tonight, she hadn’t expected. She felt foolish as soon as Cal’s bleary, stoned gaze turned and came to fix on her face. She had been worried about his new job and the proximity to the medications he would have to distribute, but things had been going so well and Cal had been so calm and patient – they hadn’t so much as squabbled in nearly  _ three  _ months about anything. Jiaying was scarcely prepared for what followed over the next few hours.

\--

_ He makes demands, she draws the line _

_ He starts the fight, she starts the lie _

_ But what is truth when something dies _

_ He’s not in love with her anymore _

_ You’re not in love with someone else _

_ You don’t even love yourself _

_ Still I wish you’d ask me not to go _

\--

It lasted for almost three hours. His first bellow woke Daisy and Jiaying used that as a reason to bring the baby to her room. She hushed Daisy back to sleep as quickly as she could before she had gone back out to face Cal. She tried to get him to keep his voice down. She tried to get him to see reason though she knew he never could think straight while drunk or while on…whatever it was he was on right now. When her efforts failed to get through to him, Jiaying had tried the tactic of drawing the line, of reminding him that he had been the one to beg for  _ one more _ chance. She had mustered up her courage and threatened that if he was giving up that chance, he should tell her right then and she would take Daisy and leave – they wouldn’t stay if he was going to go back to his old ways. She had held her breath as her heart hammered in her chest with fear while she tried to outwardly exude confidence in her assertion.

It had been a bad gamble. Cal’s temper had flared at the threat of taking his daughter away from him under the insinuation that he would hurt the little girl. The first hit had knocked the wind out of her and the follow-ups had left her disoriented and dizzy, with a bloody nose. The loud clattering and the shouting had woken Daisy and she had been wailing, cranky and confused, unsure why her wails were going unanswered for reassurances. Before Jiaying could disappear into Daisy’s room to lock the door and keep them both safe, Cal had rushed her out the front door and onto the porch. He slammed the door behind her and locked it, shouting through it that she wasn’t to return.

Daisy’s wails brought Jiaying’s senses back to her enough that she had rushed around the house to the back right side where the baby’s window was. She dragged over and climbed up onto one of their shaky trashcans to reach the window, staring inside she paused and ducked when the door swung open. With great fear, she watched, peeking just barely over the edge of the window sill as Cal crossed to the crib. He leaned over the edge of it and Jiaying’s heart caught in her throat. Would he hurt Daisy? Even if he was drunk, she was a defenseless baby. Cal had to know that she couldn’t possibly understand what was going on between her parents. She watched Cal’s knuckles go white as he gripped the edge of the crib and shouted at the baby to be quiet. Jiaying held her breath, fear gripped her heart as she watched and tried to think of something,  _ anything _ she could do to distract Cal and get him out of the room.

She jumped from the can and ran back to the front of the house and rang the doorbell quickly three times. Without waiting, she ran back around the house and climbed onto the can. When she looked over the edge of the window, she saw Cal, glancing from the door to the crib again. He let go of the crib rail and left the room. Immediately, Jiaying dug at the screen, cutting into her cuticles and fingers until she could get her fingers in to push the locking mechanisms and pushed it upward. The inner window was unlocked since it had been open earlier in the day with the warm weather and with all the strength she had, she pulled herself up with her arms and pushed with her legs. With a great clattering of noise, she vaulted in through the window and fell from the sill down to the floor. She heard Cal yelling but couldn’t make out what he said as she scrambled on her hands and knees, pulled herself to her feet and threw the door shut, bracing her weight on it as she flipped the lock on the knob.

She knew the door would never hold Cal’s weight and her disobedience had angered him, so she pushed and hefted the bureau and changing station that was next to the door until a foot of it blocked the door so that Cal’s weight being thrown against it on the other side wouldn’t allow the door to open, at least not right away. Cal screamed at her as he slammed into the door. Jiaying knew it was only a matter of time before Cal realized how she had gotten into the room and raced outside to get in through the window. As quickly as she could, Jiaying grabbed the large baby bag from where it had been sitting next to the changing table. She threw what she could of necessary items into the bag, diapers, wipes, clothes. She rushed into the baby room closet and grabbed a shoebox that was buried at the bottom of a pile of odds and ends. She grabbed the paperwork and the wad of Cash she had hidden in there as she had been slowly accumulating since Daisy’s birth. As Cal had continued to improve and stayed well, Jiaying had felt bad about her backup plan but now…now it was all she had in the moment.

She hastily packed the items into the bag, stuffing Daisy’s favorite stuffed animal with it and zipped it shut before she tossed the bag out the window. She went back to the crib and scooped Daisy up with her blanket wrapped around her, shushing her gently and clutching her close. Jumping as Cal threw his body at the door and shouted about never letting her leave, Jiaying rushed to the window and carefully climbed out so she could jump down to the grass while holding Daisy tightly to her chest. When she landed, she shifted Daisy around and set her bag cross-wise over her body before readjusting her hold on the baby. Without looking back, Jiaying ran. Through the grass of the yard, through the open gate at the side of the house and down the sidewalk, she stopped only when she needed to cross from one side of the street to the next.

\--

It was the middle of the night when she arrived at the orphanage, St. Agnes it was called. In the dark it was even eerier looking than in the daytime. After she had left with Daisy, she hadn’t stopped running until she had reached the train station, nearly three miles from their house. She had calmed Daisy while waiting for the train and then had taken it through the city and to its final stop in the suburbs of the north side of the city. On the outskirts of these suburbs, just on the other side of the border in the suburbs for the county over stood the St. Agnes orphanage.

Jiaying sat near the hedge of the front gate, cradling Daisy in her arms, dressed in warm pajamas, a knit cap on her head and her coat with her baby blanket wrapped snuggly around her as she sucked lazily against the pacifier in her mouth. She was fed and had been changed before Jiaying had dressed her and started the final trek to St. Agnes. The baby bag sat next to her leg and she struggled to rein in her emotions to keep herself from crying. There was no choice but this. She was going back to Cal to make sure he would answer for the injuries he had dealt them. She knew she would not be allowed to stay in the country and that meant Cal would get custody of Daisy. Jiaying couldn’t allow that. No, this would be the only way to keep her daughter safe when they sent her back to her home country.

“I hope there will be a day when you can forgive me,” She whispered to Daisy in her native tongue as Daisy stared up at her, half-lidded, sleepy but content to be safely cradled in her mother’s arms. “I love you,” Jiaying said. She kissed Daisy’s forehead in the spot just above the bridge of her nose. She inhaled a quick sniffle. And rocked Daisy gently, singing her one last quiet lullaby, one her own grandmother used to sing to her when she was a child, to lull Daisy to sleep.

Steeling her emotions, Jiaying kissed Daisy’s forehead one last time and carefully tucked her into the large baby bag on top of the cushion of diapers and clothes, next to her favorite little stuffed goat, white with gray hooves and little nubs for horns. It had been a gift given to them by a ‘family friend,’ someone Cal had known. The year of the goat, Jiaying had known, it was the zodiac Daisy was born under. Inside the bag, Jiaying tucked a handwritten letter, partially in English, partially in Chinese, into the blanket so it was tucked against Daisy’s chest under the baby blanket. She zipped the bag enough to keep some of the cool air out but left it open around her head so she couldn’t suffocate.

Then, very carefully and quiet as can be, Jiaying made her way through the blind spots of the front lights of the orphanage to the stone front patio of the dark, slate colored building. Jiaying whispered a quiet prayer in Chinese then reached in and gently touched Daisy’s pudgy little cheek one last time. She whispered out her last apology to her daughter and pressed the doorbell, holding it for a long few seconds before letting go and dashing off out of sight and back into the shadows around the corner of the building but still keeping sight of the front step. She felt the crush of her heart squeezing in her chest as Daisy, who must have sensed the loss of her mother’s presence, awoke to the unfamiliar surroundings and began to whimper. Jiaying gripped the stone edge of the building, white knuckled, and fought the instinct to rush back and reclaim her daughter, to console her and promise that all would be alright.

A brighter light on the front porch flicked on and Jiaying ducked further around the building’s edge without losing sight of the baby bag as Daisy’s whimpers turned into loud distraught wails.  _ I’m sorry, Daisy, I’m so sorry, I love you, _ she thought over and over, convinced she was dying from the pain stabbing right through the center of her heart. She watched as a nun stepped out through the open door and immediately began to fuss over the late night delivery on the doorstep. She opened the bag and shushed the baby gently as she scooped her out from it. Jiaying felt the extra pangs of pain in her chest as being cradled in the arms of the new stranger did nothing to soothe the confused baby, just barely over half a year old and now abandoned. The nun issued soothing, hushed comments as she rocked the baby, calling into the doorway for the Mother Superior. Jiaying watched as she grabbed the strap of the baby bag in her free hand and stepped back inside from the cool gusty wind of the night, closing the door behind her with finality.

Jiaying stood at the edge of the building for a long time, tears cascading down her cheeks, listening to the muffled sound of Daisy’s wails as she tested her lungs in an attempt to alert her mother that she wanted to be held and consoled by her. She waited until what she could hear of the wails finally died down, either because Daisy had exhausted herself into sleep or because the nun that had picked her up had managed to soothe her daughter.

Wiping the saline from her face, Jiaying slipped back through the shadows and to the sidewalk, moving with swift determination. She had a few more stops before she made her way back to Cal. He would pay for the pain he had caused her and she would ensure he paid dearly.

\--

_ She’s had enough, she says the end _

_ But she’ll come back, she knows it then _

_ A chance to start it all again _

_ Til death do us part _

\--

Jiaying took the train back into the city and got off at a stop in a neighborhood that was known as one of the city’s worst. She made her way through certain streets, turning down certain corners until she came upon the one she knew best. She stood at the bottom of the stoop and stared at the door, trying to muster her courage to head inside. She knew this place well. She had dragged Cal out of this rundown fire hazard many times in the past while wondering if she should have left him there to rot in his hole.

“He’s not here,” a gruff voice said from behind her.

Thought Jiaying jumped, she did not flee and she didn’t gasp in shock as she wanted to at the sudden intrusion into her thoughts. She turned to look at the man. He arched his eyebrows expectantly. “I am not looking for Cal,” she said. “I am here for you.”

“Well, well, well…” He tilted his head and grinned at her. He motioned for the front door of the house, a dilapidated piece of plywood, barely hanging from the hinges it had been bolted to. “Step into my office,” he gave he a slimy grin and Jiaying squared her shoulders and made her way inside. She had the cash. This was a business transaction. She needed to buy from him in order to play out the rest of her plan.

\--

She had hoped that Cal would be unconscious or in a deep drunken stupor by the time she returned. He was certainly in a stupor, but his rage had not subsided. Jiaying let him get a number of hits in and made sure to scratch at his face and to deal enough blows back at him to mark him in her defensive wounds. His hands were wrapped tight around her neck when she purposefully dropped the bag she had obtained on her stop in the city, ensuring that Cal saw it. He paused, his grip going slightly slack as his bleary eyes zeroed in on it. When his brain recognized the pills, he all but dropped Jiaying and she collapsed to the floor, gasping to catch her breath back, her face bloodied and bruised, her knuckles raw.

“…Why-,” Cal’s voice was small, confused but Jiaying cut him off.

“You have won,” Jiaying croaked out, doing so in Chinese as she was too distressed, too beaten and broken, both on a physical and emotional level, to filter herself into English. She wondered what it mattered if she simply let Cal kill her tonight. Perhaps that was the way to go. Perhaps she should provoke him to end a lifetime of sorrow and longing for her daughter that she nod faced. That, in the end, would put him away and he would never have the slightest chance of finding Daisy again.  _ This will be my sacrifice, _ she thought,  _ it will be so simple _ . Cal seemed confused by her comment. His fist connected with her cheekbone with an angry thwack and Jiaying let the darkness envelope her whole.

\--

When she woke, Jiaying was in the floor in the threshold of the foyer and the archway to the living room. She didn’t move other than opening her eyes. She was alive. It took some time for the world to stop swaying in her vision. The sky had moved from midnight black to dark blue, indicating that the sun was beginning to slowly make its ascent toward sunrise. 

“C-Cal…?” Her voice was harsh and dry. Blood was caked along varying parts of her face, thick and stiff, tacky as her muscles twitched. When there was no response, Jiaying slowly moved to push herself up into a seated position. There was a pause as she closed her eyes and tried to make her head stop spinning. She dragged herself to her feet, using the curved banister to pull her way to her feet.

She called his name again and when there was no answer, Jiaying tried to find him. The house was in utter disarray. Tables upturned, vases smashed, books thrown from the shelves, dishes and glasses in pieces on the floor of the kitchen, which is where she found Cal, lying on the floor unconscious. He had ingested more alcohol as evidenced by the broken bottle next to him. She assumed he dropped it from his hand as he had fallen after the pills, however many he had taken, had been washed down. She very cautiously felt along his neck to see if he still had a pulse. He did. He groaned unintelligibly and shifted. Jiaying backed up immediately and had to steady herself on the counter when a dizzy spell hit her. Rushing back to the foyer, she picked up the phone from its hook and dialed the emergency services number. She thought about Daisy, about what kind of life she might have as an abandoned little girl, never knowing that her mother had given up to protect her from her father and let the tears fall again, let her voice go high and panicked. She shouted, half in English, half in Chinese, begging the operator for help, telling them about the fight, about Cal overdosing. She played the part she needed to play.

The first car to arrive was a police car, its lights whirring blue and red in the dim light of the day, had two officers inside, Officers Melinda May and Thomas Nash. They were headed for the front door, hands on their guns on their belts, jogging for the front steps when a woman burst forth out the door. Nash had drawn his gun but May had spotted the woman watching from the stairs through the storm door and had instead lifted her hands to stop the woman, who was talking a mile a minute, switching back and forth between English and Chinese.

“Slow down, lady-,” Nash began to say.

“Go find the husband, I’ll stay with her and send the others in when they arrive,” May said, knowing the man was likely still unconscious as the call had included an overdose. May turned her attention to the woman as Nash nodded, pulled his gun and headed inside. “What’s your name?” May asked, sticking to Chinese since the woman was nearly hysterical by that point.

“Jiaying,” Jiaying answered, cautious now.

May led her to the police car and sat her down sideways in the backseat. She went to the trunk and retrieved a thick blanket. When she returned she wrapped it carefully around Jiaying and then began inspecting the woman’s face wounds to see if any were still bleeding. She grabbed the walkie on her shoulder and pressed the button on the side to quickly radio an update into the operator. Then she turned back to Jiaying. “Can you tell me what happened?” May asked Jiaying, back to Chinese.

Jiaying shook as she told the story, taking care to place specific lies throughout the story. She included the loss of their daughter, claiming she didn’t know what had been done with her daughter’s body, that Cal had been in such a rage – that when she had woken, the baby was gone. She cried as she told the story, just as she had on the phone, making sure that all of it was recorded. She stammered out details and May nodded. She told them she had escaped in the afternoon out the window, that when she returned Cal had attacked her and when she woke up he was unconscious in the kitchen. When she was finished, May was reassuringly squeezing her shoulder. The ambulance arrived and May directed them inside to meet up with Nash and the husband.

“W-what will happen now?” Jiaying asked, finally speaking without prompting, through a sniffle, as she watched the paramedics rush out of the house with Cal strapped onto the rolling gurney. Nash came out behind it as another few police cars arrived on the scene including an unmarked one with a pair of detectives in it.

“We’ll take you to the hospital to have them look you over,” May answered, unsure whether or not this woman was a documented immigrant or a citizen through marriage. Jiaying had called Cal her husband through the whole thing but May didn’t see a ring on her finger, wedding or engagement. She didn’t want to scare the already shaken woman.

“A-and Cal?” Jiaying asked.

May pressed her lips into a tight line.

“May!” Nash called out. She looked over and saw he was climbing into the back of the ambulance with the paramedics. “Are we gonna hit the road or what?” He called.

May nodded. “We’ll meet you there!” she called back. Nash gave her a thumbs up and then pulled the ambulance door shut behind him and the ambulance was off, lights and sirens spinning and whirring in full force through the neighborhood. “They’re going to do all they can for him,” she assured Jiaying, holding off on informing her that he would then be charged and arraigned for his crimes. “Let’s get you to the hospital and make sure you’re alright. We’ll take it from there afterward, okay?” She asked. Jiaying nodded and May helped her turn properly into the seat of the car. “I’m just going right over there to let the detective know where we’re going. I’ll be back in just a moment,” she promised. Jiaying nodded and May stepped over to the detective and had a quick conversation with him.

When she returned, she climbed into the driver’s seat and drove them to the nearest hospital, the one Cal was also on his way to. May continued her conversation with Jiaying on the way, asking very careful questions as she went. Something didn’t sit right with her in this story. She wasn’t sure what it was but her questions were designed in such a way that they would hopefully pull the full truth out of the battered woman in the backseat.

\--

May pulled into a parking spot and helped Jiaying from the car. She kept a consoling arm around the woman and helped her walk into the emergency room and up to the front desk. She walked Jiaying to the secondary check in desk to help get the nurses all of Jiaying’s information to have her checked out. The head nurse was just leading Jiaying back toward the examination area when a great clattering came from one of the curtained off examination areas.

Whatever had been given to Cal to bring him around had caused him to be whipped into a furious frenzy, so much so that he had broken part of the bar of the bed that he was handcuffed to. He had gotten hold of a scalpel and had slashed the doctor working on him across the cheek and then had whirled on Nash before he could get his gun out and as he was rushing toward Cal. Everything happened so quickly. May had been following the nurse and Jiaying. She was reaching for her gun when she saw Cal bury the scalpel into the side of Nash’s neck and then jerked it free. Nash’s eyes rolled up as his limbs went limp and he collapsed in a heap to the floor. The nurse tried to rush for Nash and the doctor to help them and Cal staggered and grabbed her by the arm, yanking her in and in front of him, pressing the sharp scalpel edge into her throat. When she yelped in shock, the blade cut into her neck and the woman’ tears flowed freely.

May, by that point, had pulled Jiaying behind her, pulled her gun, flipped the safety and aimed it. Her finger hung over the outer rim of the trigger catch, not wanting to go onto the trigger until she was prepared to fire. “Let her go!” Her arms were locked, both hands on the gun the way she was trained, her tone commanding. Her body was turned toward Cal, her face angled toward him. Her eyes moved but only when Cal’s vision shifted, so that she could look at the doctor and Nash and what she could see of them on the ground. The doctor, who was bleeding profusely from his own cheek, was leaning over Nash, trying in vain to find and plug the severed artery in Nash’s neck.

“GIVE ME MY WIFE!” Cal bellowed feverishly.

“Let her go first!” May shouted.

“SHE STOLE DAISY!” Cal screamed. “SHE STOLE MY DAUGHTER! GIVE ME BACK MY DAUGHTER!!” He was wild with emotion and adrenaline and not quite steady on his feet. As a result, the nurse he was holding hostage sustained numerous nicks from the already bloody scalpel.

“Cal…” May took a step closer, holding the gun steady. “I need you to-,”

“STAY BACK!” Cal screamed. “JIAYING YOU TELL THEM! YOU TELL THEM YOU  _ BITCH _ ! YOU TELL THEM WHAT YOU DID!”

“Cal-,”

“I JUST WANT MY DAISY! GIVE ME BACK MY DAISY!”

“This isn’t how you get her back, Cal!” May shouted to get his attention. She didn’t have a shot with the way Cal was swaying on his feet. She inched closer when Cal wasn’t paying attention but only made it a step before Jiaying moved.

Slowly, after having dropped the blanket off of her shoulders, Jiaying put her hands up in front of her and walked around May. “Jiaying, stop – don’t,” May stammered.

Jiaying ignored her. She slowly stepped toward Cal and the nurse. “Cal…let her go,” Jiaying said, her tone calm and soft. “Daisy’s gone…” she whispered. “Don’t you remember what you did?” She asked.

Cal blinked, confused. He stammered a few unintelligible sounds. “Wh-wha…wha…”

“Let her go, Cal,” Jiaying said. “I am right here for you…” she stepped closer. Cal let go of the nurse, who fell away and scrambled past May and as far away from Cal as she could get. Jiaying reached for Cal’s face, framing it with her hands to turn his eyes to hers. “Daisy’s gone,” she said again, soft and gentle. She leaned closer. “ _ And you will never find her…you will never hurt her… _ ” she murmured just loud enough for Cal, and no one else, to hear as her eyes darkened when her gaze reached his.

“Wh-what have you…what’ve you done to me?” Cal stammered. Jiaying didn’t answer. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?” Cal’s arm reeled back and May adjusted her aim quickly and took her shot. Cal’s body jolted backward as the bullet ripped through his shoulder. The scalpel clattered to the floor and Cal grabbed Jiaying’s arm in a fierce grip, pulling her to the ground with him.

The struggle that ensued was chaotic, at best. Cal pulled Jiaying down on top of him to shield himself. A bystander dove in as Cal groped for Nash’s fallen gun with his good hand. May started to rush forward. She couldn’t get a shot in, so she first Grabbed Jiaying to pull her away from the pile. As she turned back to the fray, she discovered that the bystander was Phil Coulson. She had no idea what he was doing in the emergency room but now he had the scalpel buried into his lower left side and was fumbling with Cal, who had a hand on Nash’s gun.

Phil swung Cal’s hand, trying to drag his aim away from any people. The gun went off once. May shouted Phil’s name. He kept struggling. Jiaying collapsed next to May and May dropped to her knee next to Jiaying as blood started seeping into her dress from her abdomen. May wanted to reach for her but the fight was still going on and she had to neutralize it. She turned back toward the fight just as Phil swung something that he had grabbed, the closest hard item he could find (it happened to be a stainless steel bedpan that had fallen free from its holding location on a shelf in the scuffle) and clocked Cal in the side of the head with it. The gun in Cal’s hand went off again as he gripped the trigger reflexively before he collapsed to the floor. Melinda felt the jolt as the bullet hit her and knocked her back to the floor at the same time that she heard the muffled sound of Phil calling her name. She blinked when the ceiling came into view but her vest took the hit, right? Yes, her vest took the hit.

Melinda flipped the safety on her gun with her thumb and holstered it as she scrambled to her knees. She pressed her hand into Jiaying’s gut until she found the wound and then bolted her arms straight, pushing all of her weight onto the spot. The woman groaned and her eyes rolled back. “Stay with me, stay with me, stay with me,” She said, murmuring it in Chinese. Hospital security had made it to the scene and paramedics, nurses and another emergency room doctor were rushing in around them. Melinda heard all kinds of shouting going on. She felt lightheaded as she called Jiaying’s name to get her eyes back into focus. Phil’s struggling stalled when he heard the name Melinda shouted and his eyes widened as they landed on the woman on the floor, recognizing her now among her many battering wounds on her face.

“Hold on,” Melinda said to Jiaying. “Just hold on a little longer for me,” She made the plea over and over.

Jiaying murmured something but Melinda couldn’t hear it. She leaned closer, trying not to let up on the pressure. Nearby, Phil was pushing hands away from him, insisting he was fine...with a scalpel sticking out of his side. Melinda glanced his way, forcing the urge to hurry over and help her lifelong friend down since she couldn’t leave the women on the floor next to her. “What?” Melinda asked Jiaying.

“D-dont...let him...f-find her…” Jiaying forced the words out between coughs and ragged sputters.

Melinda blinked. “Find who…?” she asked, gravely as her head began to swim. Was that it? That was the something that had felt off about her whole story, wasn’t it? “Daisy?” Melinda asked, leaning closer to Jiaying. The woman gave a soft nod before a doctor and a paramedic had come rushing to her side. Melinda moved out of the way to let them in and stood up, heading over toward the bed they had forced Phil to sit down on. He was still trying to fight them as they tried to keep them still.

“Phil!” Melinda said and when he realized she was standing in front of him, Phil stopped struggling.

He exhaled an anxious sigh. “Are you alright?”

“ _ Me _ ?” Melinda asked. She felt a bit lightheaded but managed not to sway on her feet. “What were you thinking?? Jumping into something like that?” she asked. “What are you even doing here?”

“You’re bleeding,” Phil suddenly pointed out, staring at Melinda.

“It’s not mine, it’s-,” Melinda turned slightly in Jiaying’s direction as they were wheeling the gurney they had loaded her on to out and something about the way she turned caused a sharp pain in her clavicle. She wobbled on her feet.

“Mel?” Phil asked. He leaned forward to reach for her but a nurse stopped him. The doctor that had been cutting Phil’s t-shirt away from the scalpel let go, dropped the scissors and moved toward Melinda but was a moment too late. Melinda collapsed to the floor. Her head bouncing off the linoleum flooring, Phil’s voice calling her name and the sudden massive pain in her temple were the last things she remembered before the darkness engulfed her.

**Author's Note:**

> Song credit: _Til Death Do Us Part_ by Madonna  
>  \------------------------  
> This series was inspired by a book I read a number of years ago, The Words of Every Song by Liz Moore. It had multiple episodes contained within it and each episode was tied somehow to the music industry and it was beautifully woven together.
> 
> While this is not an AU based around the music industry, it is definitely completely AU and will possibly cover more than just the AOS corner of Marvel's deep well of available characters to toy with. This world will have no superheroes/powers, etc.
> 
> Rather than making this a multichapter story, I'm making it into a series so that each 'episode' (if you will) can be its own self contained part of the story. Each one will revolve around a particular aspect of the characters involved's lives and will be titled after and tie into whatever song is relevant to that particular piece. Lengths of each chapter will vary (and can/may do so) greatly, so some, may be short snippets and others could be 40k+ words like some of the UWGT chapters!
> 
> We've progressed into the beginning of the 90's as I fiddle with laying the ground work for world building. I am going to do my best to only use songs that came out during or before the year each piece is written in as we go. Some characters will have age changes/adjustments since, again, AU. I will likely add a soundtrack playlist as well once a handful of pieces are posted and it's off and running.
> 
> If you have any thoughts, song suggestions, questions, etc please always feel free to drop me a line, I love hearing from you guys! <3 :o)  
> (just gonna paste this into each of the first few chapters for now as a precautionary measure)


End file.
